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Questioning Art in a Digital World

alexnyup brings up some good ideas considering the question: “What is art in a digital world?”

Tools like Instagram should be used just as that – as tools. But people who rely on them to create “art” are just snapping whatever they can, relying on luck and the programs in Instagram and in their phones rather than on any skill. That isn’t to say people don’t come up with some amazing photos nor that many shouldn’t be considered art. It just feels too much like The Modern Way of taking shortcuts rather than learning a craft and working hard to achieve something that is as beautiful completed as it was to make.

On the seventh day, God created Facebook, and He saw that it was good. Circa 4.6 billion years later, social media experts attempted to isolate and split a single Facebook atom in order to clone its success. The result was an unanticipated and enormous success. Instead of creating a new Facebook, two opposite descendants arose; the witty Facebook status and wall post chromosomes formed a new site called Twitter, while the mobile upload and photo album DNA became that which we refer to as Instagram. The photo-sharing app burst onto the scene in early 2010 and has been rapidly gaining popularity. How much popularity? The InstaArmy is reported to be about 100 million strong. That’s more than the population of New York City. Times ten. But what is it that makes this app so special? Is it…